Since I started to take this hobby seriously, a telephoto lens has been long been part of my kit. Over the last year or so though, my main lens has been a standard zoom with a range of 24-105mm. This lens has no doubt satisfied my needs and given me options I needed to get the shot, but something was missing.

I spend a lot of time hiking the fells of the Lake District in the UK and distant views of mountain scenery is often my choice of photograph. The long end of my standard zoom is 105mm which although is adequate, it doesn’t give me that option of eliminating parts of the scene which I feel don’t add to the composition. I wanted that chance to capture distant patches of light, prominent peaks, larch trees to name just a few. I needed that extra distance.

The Canon EF 70-200mm L was the first long lens I owned. With its durability, weight and sharpness, it quickly became to be my go to lens. I used this used lens in various environments and landscapes from woodland to the mountains of the Lake District. I have always been a lover of the simple landscape scenes and this lens gave me exactly what I wanted. Moving through the years and my introduction to mirrorless cameras, I sold the EF and replaced it with the RF version. This lens continued to be my favourite lens and had produced some of my best work.

As with several of my lenses that I’ve owned throughout the years and for monitory reasons at the time, the RF 70-200 was sold. So there I was with no telephoto lens, just my standard zoom and my 35mm prime. The long lens was definitely missed and it wasn’t long until I was back in possession with the RF 100-400.

The Canon RF 100- 400 f/5.6 to f/8 as it name says, is a varied aperture lens with 5.5 stop Image Stabiliser (IS) At the time, I relied too much on the IS and often came away with images that were affected by camera shake. I couldn’t get used to the lens and it wasn’t long until we parted company. Looking back and is the case with a lot of my lenses, this was probably a bad decision. The truth is that I didn’t give it enough time and realise now that a lens with such a zoom range which opened up more options and at such a low cost, demanded more attention.

So here we are, I am now content with my lens collection, a 24-105 standard zoom 35 prime and yes, a reunited 100-400. As I write this article, I have used the RF 100-400 f/5.6 – f/8 twice and each time it has produced pin sharp images. The secret? Make sure that the shutter speed is never less than 1/250. This lens will re give me the options of eliminating distractions, reach out to patches of light on distant fells and better chances of simple landscape photography.